Five years of muck, dirt and matting are apparent in Sadie, the corgi golden retriever mix previously known as the ghost dog of Allenstown. After she was shaved, she was much happier, Holly Mokrzeck of Granite State Dog Recovery said. (Courtesy)

Ghost dog finally makes it home

By BENJAMIN C. KLEINUnion Leader Correspondent

ALLENSTOWN — After five years of roaming the streets and woodlands, a lost dog, nicknamed the ghost dog, has been reunited with its Allenstown family.

For five years, the so-called ghost dog lived off scraps and survived blizzards, sometimes being seen with icicles hanging off its face in cold weather. For years residents and the local police assumed the ghost dog was merely a dog let out by its owner, but after nearly hitting it with her car, a concerned resident called the Granite State Dog Recovery, who then captured the ghost dog and discovered its origins.

.“We were shocked to find that she has a microchip, and that her name is Sadie. She was a Katrina dog who lost her family and home in the hurricane, and soon after she was adopted by a family in Allenstown. Five years ago she ran away, dragging her leash,” said Holly Mokrzecki, founder and vice-president of the GSDR...Mokrzecki said the family adopted Sadie from the Greater Nashua Humane Society five years ago as a birthday present for one of their children. Sadie escaped only five hours after being adopted, leaving from a park about three miles away from where she was found last week...Mokrzecki said Sadie’s family, who declined to be interviewed for this article, were happy to have her back.

“They said that when they adopted her they agreed to be her forever home, and even though five years have passed, that still remains true,” Mokrzecki said...Sadie, a golden retriever corgi mix, is now eight and quickly went from skittish to loving after being caught.

“When she was in the wild, she was in survival mode. She was very skittish, and bolted the second you moved towards here. But once we caught her, she was the greatest dog you can imagine. She gave us the sweetest thank you ever, like she knew she was saved,” Mokrzecki said...Susan Piche, a volunteer for GSDR, said she spent hours tracking down Sadie’s owner after scanning her microchip with the Dog Recovery’s scanner. With some of the information not up to date, Piche said she had to play Internet sleuth to find Sadie’s family...“This is my second sort-of job, but we are all volunteers, and there is nothing better than watching a lost dog reunited with its family,” Piche said.

Lt. Paul Paquette of the Allenstown Police Department said that the department has been aware of Sadie for years, and that they have tried to catch her many times, but couldn’t get close enough...“It just kept running away, and it looked fairly healthy so I figured someone just let it out,” Paquette said.

While Sadie’s fur was dirty, matted and had to be shaved off, she was relatively healthy despite spending the last five years scrounging for scraps and handouts...“In fact, if anything, she was obese from all the junk food she was eating,” Mokrzecki said.

The Granite State Dog Recovery has about 25 volunteers who in 2013 alone have reunited 623 lost dogs with their families...“It takes up a lot of time, but it is very rewarding” Mokrzecki said.

Granite State Dog Recovery has a website at granitestatedogrecovery.com a Facebook.com page, and a hotline, 1-855-639-LOST (5678), where anyone can report a lost dog...bklein@newstote.com..